Colton Harris-Moore: The Saga of the “Barefoot Bandit”

The “Barefoot Bandit” became a modern day folk hero on Facebook, evading police across the United States for three years by stealing vehicles, boats and light aircraft before being captured in the Bahamas. But the lanky, 6-foot-5 teenager was no Robin Hood, leaving over $3 million in damages in his wake.

Ferry boat captain Freddie Grant and ferry service employee Stan Pennerman of the Eleuthera Island of The Bahamas were going about their morning routine on July 10, 2010 when they noticed that the ignition systems on three of the service’s boats had been damaged. The men recalled seeing a tall, white teenager either bathing or swimming in an inlet the previous evening and wondered if he might be connected to the harm. Grant and Pennerman reported the damaged ignition systems and the sighting of the teen to the police.

Police connected this report to others recently received that pointed to a fugitive from the United States, Colton Harris-Moore, often called “The Barefoot Bandit.” In an article for the HeraldNet entitled “After two years, one chapter of Colton Harris-Moore’s escape comes to a close,” Jackson Holtz wrote, “In the Bahamas, video surveillance cameras reportedly captured glimpses of him prowling through bars and restaurants in the sandy, sun-splashed resort islands off the Florida coast. Officials there turned up the heat, handing out wanted posters.”

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With the purpose of writing about true crime in an authoritative, fact-based manner, veteran journalists J. J. Maloney and J. Patrick O’Connor launched Crime Magazine in November of 1998.

Their goal was to cover all aspects of true crime: from organized crime to serial killers, from capital punishment to prisons, from historical crimes to celebrity crime, from assassinations to government corruption, from justice issues to innocent cases, from crime films to books about crime. Read More